Now we see further confirmation of something Olympus said some time ago, that a body or some other solution would be developed that would allow 4/3 glass to perform satisfactorily on an m4/3 body. That solution is only partial at least as far as OVF fans are concerned.

Unfortunately, I don't see OVF cameras remaining in the Olympus line up. I think they had m4/3 in mind since the adoption of the 4/3 sensor format, and consequently the fading away of OVF/DSLRs is a matter of following their (modified) plan. I say modified because I do believe that if the Ex and Exxx lines had proven more successful, Olympus would have found a way to maintain at least one DSLR in each line. However, a company facing the financial issues Olympus has cannot afford to pursue several projects at once, and must focus resources on what they think will be most successful.

What we have is, unfortunately, those people who want to see updated versions of Olympus dslrs, resolutely preferring OVFs, facing the near inevitability that such a thing will not happen. The issue those people need to face up to is they represent a pretty small percentage of the customer base as to mean that meeting their request may not be financially viable for Olympus.

Sorry, but for anyone that loves photographing wildlife, and especially birding, a good OVF and proper AF is a must. It would be a mistake if Olympus were to force the owners of the 250 and 300 lenses to an EVF. The need of a good OVF is underestimated for these types of photography.

Tell me: how many owners of those lenses would refuse to switch to a camera which provides proper AF, even if it doesn't have an OVF (btw, EVFs are improving constantly so many of the arguments in favor of OVFs are becoming less relevant)? How many owners of those lenses would insist only on a camera with OVF? Now do the math: is it enough to justify the expense of producing the camera those people would demand?

Since Olympus Visionary Jay Kinghorn is among many who are already using the lenses you mention with m4/3 cameras-including shooting wildlife and birding- I would guess the answer is that not enough people who own those lenses will demand an OVF camera for it to be economically feasible to provide such a small percentage of owners with the camera they demand.

If less than 1% of a market demands something, is any sensible company going to cater to that small of a market share? The value of the feature to a given minority of users must be weighed against the cost of providing that feature.

In case you missed it below, see what a sensible company man says:

Ogawa: "Of course, we're reaching a high level of performance with our Micro Four Thirds mirrorless product, but we are still not satisfied with these at the professional level. That's why we think we still need the E-System to satisfy professional photographers."

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